Interview with Cristina Coral

Cristina Coral is a self-taught photographer from Italy who uses her camera to say things that words cannot. She communicates her feelings, her thoughts, and her experiences by translating the visuals before her into art. She experiments with form, line, color, pattern, and space to create poetic photographs. There is an essence of fragility that most commonly feature female muses, captured in their environments. The outcome is pictures that are sometimes lonely, sometimes atmospheric, sometimes mysterious and always soothing – expertly composed and shot by the artist. At first glance these photos seem relatively simple as there is no business or dynamic action, but we are able to find narratives and imagine what is happening in the inner psyche of these muses.

Cristina’s photos have received prestigious acclaim, she has participated in both group and solo shows, and she has been featured in publications like Vogue, Art Tribune, Art-Sheep, and Le journal de la Photographie; proving that she is a major player in the photography game. In the various photo series’ that Cristina has explored the self, the form in nature, intimacy, and the expressiveness of hands. She takes the human condition, focuses in on it, and snaps a moment in time. She experiments with textures, colors, space, and the solitary figure to produce photos that are unique, a style that is all her own.

Allie: How do you choose your models? What type of person/model is the most creatively inspiring to you?CC: I usually work with non-professional models. I choose those who inspire me. I try to find in their expression interesting aspects of their personality or faces that have something to tell. Female figures are the best interpreters of feelings and of my vision with fragility and contradictions where very often I can recognize myself.

How do you go about taking your photographs? Do you have an idea in mind going in or is the process more dictated by the moment? Do you put effort in the preliminary ideation process?
Some of my projects on which I have been working for several years, are the result of long reflections. Sometimes I am inspired by clothes/fashion and most of the time I am inspired by the locations or rooms; the spaces of my pictures contain the dimension of my creative thoughts and sometimes in the outcome I can find new possibilities of using my pictures in a more creative way.

How has your work evolved since the beginning of your photography career?
My photography is developed and grown up along with my satisfactions from the different projects done since the start of my experience as photographer.

What inspires you? Certain color palettes? Nature? People?
I get inspired when I feel in a right place, when I find connection between inside, outside, and between model and the surrounding. I love retro rooms, nature, and colors.

How do people react to your photographs? What sort of feedback do you get from your audience?
It’s important that an artist gets feedback from the people, this helps to improve and is always very interesting to see the different way to interpreting my pictures.

What project/projects are you working on at the moment?
Currently I’m working on a few commissioned projects, continuing my research, and enjoying life!